79 79 International Journal of Scientifc Study | March 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 12 Stress, Anxiety, and Depression among Human Immunodefciency Virus/Acquired Immune Defciency Syndrome Patients Swapnil Sunil Bumb 1 , Arun Dodamani 2 1 Tutor, Department of Public Health Dentistry, ACPM Dental College, Dhule, Maharashtra, India, 2 Professor and Head, Department of Public Health Dentistry, ACPM Dental College, Dhule, Maharashtra, India a retrovirus due to the presence of the enzyme reverse transcriptase, which converts the viral RNA to DNA which then becomes integrated into the genome of the human host cells. HIV is transmitted through unprotected oral, vaginal, or anal sex, blood transmission, sharing infected needles, and through breastfeeding. HIV attacks the white blood cells known as CD4 or T-helper cells of the immune system; these cells play a key role as they produce portions to fght against the infection and protect the body from infections, illness, etc. HIV minimizes the functions of CD4 cells, which result in the immune system weakened and the body fails to fght infection. If CD4 cells drops <200 cells/µl HIV status will change from HIV positive to AIDS. Researchers believed that AIDS is not the direct cause of death but due to failure of proper function of INTRODUCTION Acquired immune defciency syndrome (AIDS) is a viral disease caused by human immunodefciency virus (HIV), previously known as lymphadenopathy-associated virus or human T-cell lymphotropic virus 3, found in the infected person’s body fuids through semen and vaginal fuids, cerebrospinal fuid, and plasma and biopsy specimens from brain and rectum, blood, and breast milk. HIV is Original Article Abstract Background: Since 1981, acquired immune defciency syndrome (AIDS) kills 39 million people globally. This silent killer disease not only affects the patient physiologically and economically but also psychologically too. It is found by various researchers that AIDS patients have a lot of psychological problems such as fear, stigma, distress, aggression, anxiety, stress, and depression. Materials and Methods: The present study constituted a sample of 100 human immunodefciency virus/AIDS patients with an equal number of male and female, selected through simple random sampling method. Further, all patients were equally divided into two more subgroups on the basis of their marital status (married and unmarried). Anxiety, depression, and stress scale constructed by Bhatnagar et al., were used for the assessment of anxiety, stress, and depression among patients. For statistical analysis mean, t-test and Pearson correlation were applied using SPSS 16.0 version. Results: The results demonstrated that AIDS patients have high level of anxiety (14% of patients have moderate level and 59% of patients have severe level), stress (2% of patients have mild, 35% of patients have moderate level, and 63% of patients have severe level), and depression (26% of patients have moderate level, while as 74% of patients have severe level), respectively. Further, results also uncovered that female and married patients have a high level of anxiety, stress, and depression than male and unmarried patients. Conclusion: On the basis of results we conclude that most of the AIDS patients have moderate and sever level of anxiety, stress, and depression. Key words: Acquired immune defciency syndrome, Anxiety, CD4, Depression, Human immunodefciency virus, Stress Access this article online www.ijss-sn.com Month of Submission : 01-2019 Month of Peer Review : 02-2019 Month of Acceptance : 02-2019 Month of Publishing : 03-2019 Corresponding Author: Dr. Bumb SS and Dodamani A, Department of Public Health Dentistry, ACPM Dhule Dental College, Dhule, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: drswapnilbumb@gmail.com Print ISSN: 2321-6379 Online ISSN: 2321-595X